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Gunmen riding motorcycles roared up to a Turkish restaurant in the capital of the West African nation of Burkina Faso and opened fire, killing at least 18 people and battling security forces in a hostage-taking standoff that ended early Monday.

The country’s communications minister, Remi Dandjinou, told reporters that security forces had killed two gunmen and searched for any others. He said at least 20 other people were injured in the attack on the Aziz Istanbul restaurant, a spot popular with foreigners in the capital, Ouagadougou.

There has been no claim of responsibility for Sunday night's attack at the Aziz Istanbul restaurant, which was often packed with foreign nationals who went there to watch football.

Foreign minister Alpha Barry told AFP that the "terrorist" attack in the capital Ouagadougou killed seven locals and at least eight foreigners including one Frenchman; one Canadian woman; male victims from Senegal, Niger, Lebanon and Turkey; and two Kuwaiti women.

Three victims remain unidentified, he said.

Separately, Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said two Canadians were among the victims.

(...)

The restaurant is just 200 metres (220 yards) from a hotel and cafe targeted in an assault in January 2016 that left 30 people dead and 71 wounded, many of them foreigners. That attack was claimed by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

BBM

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity ~ Hanlon's Razor

This image taken from video, early Monday, Aug. 14, 2017, shows an armoured vehicle driving down a street after an attack in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Suspected Islamic extremists opened fire at a Turkish restaurant in the capital of Burkina Faso late Sunday, killing at least 18 people in the second such attack on a restaurant popular with foreigners in the last two years. (@Yabsi1er via AP)

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso -- Hours after suspected Islamic extremists opened fire as patrons dined at the popular restaurant where she worked as a waitress, Amy Sawadogo was still wandering around barefoot at a crisis centre asking about her colleagues.

"I just want to go to the hospital and see who is still alive," the distraught young woman, who was still dressed in her uniform, said early Monday. "I am calling them in vain, no response."

The death toll rose to 18 and authorities said many of the victims were children dining with their families on a Sunday night at the Aziz Istanbul restaurant when horror struck once again in Burkina Faso's capital of Ouagadougou. At least 22 people were wounded

Eight of the dead in Sunday's attack were citizens of Burkina Faso, authorities said. Three Lebanese and two Canadians were also killed, according to the victims' respective foreign ministries. Other victims came from Kuwait, Senegal, Nigeria, Turkey and France, state prosecutor Maizan Sereme said.